Photo/Illutration The Hakkoda mountain range in Aomori Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

In “Hakkodasan Shi no Hoko” (Death March on Mount Hakkoda), author Jiro Nitta (1912-1980) depicts a scene where soldiers on the march who have lost their way in a raging snowstorm start to collapse from the unbearable cold, exhaustion and drowsiness.

“They were sleepwalking,” the passage goes to the effect. “They would suddenly drop to the snowy ground, never to get up again.”

The novel was based on the historic blizzard of 1902, which killed 199 of the 210 soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army’s 8th Division Fifth Infantry Regiment, who were training in the Hakkoda mountain range in Aomori Prefecture to prepare for a war with Russia.

The group became completely stranded on Jan. 24, exactly 121 years ago. An accident report compiled by the Imperial Japanese Army later quoted a local elder as saying the weather was the coldest he’d ever experienced.

Temperatures elsewhere also started plummeting around the same time. The city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido on Jan. 25 that year registered minus 41 degrees, the lowest since record-keeping began.

Now, weather forecasters are ramping up their language in warning us about the imminent arrival of the “season’s worst,” “unprecedented” and “alert-level” snowfalls, wind gusts and an arctic freeze that are expected to stick around the nation until Jan. 26.

I can only pray for minimal problems.

People in snowy regions don’t need to be reminded to protect their water pipes against freezing, or to shuffle their feet when walking on frozen streets.

This cold wave is likely to bring snow to major cities, too. We can never be too careful.

In Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, tree trunks are said to split with a loud crack when the water inside them freezes from exposure to the frigid air.

The phenomenon is called “toretsu,” which is written with kanji characters that stand for “freeze” and “split.”

Obviously, we humans aren’t the only ones who feel like screaming when it gets too cold.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 24

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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